Brandon is a Niagara University graduate with a passion for esports. He writes about League of Legends and esports, with analysis and commentary on both. He is a founding member Niagara University Esports and the previous mid laner/coach for the NU Esports LoL team. Twitter @GhandiLoL

LEC Summer 2019 | Playoffs Round 2: Rogue vs Schalke 04

Game One

Rogue (“RGE”) and Schalke 04 (“S04”) had great series victories last weekend, so both were riding high coming into today. But RGE looked to be on a completely different level in Game One and absolutely smashed S04. Inspired kicked it off by ganking the bottom lane to get First Blood on Ignar. Shortly after, they took an Ocean Dragon. Though S04 found two kills in a 3v3 top at 11 minutes, they were never able to push this lead and were outpaced by RGE.

This was easily visible. At 12 minutes, S04 took the Rift Herald but RGE collapsed and killed two S04 members. A minute later Inspired ganked Odoamne in the bottom lane and killed him, while his team turned around an S04 play to get two additional kills. From here, RGE played the map incredibly well and applied massive pressure. They saw an opportunity to strike at S04’s throat at 22 minutes. Here, they dove the middle tower and began a team fight that resulted in an Ace and Baron for RGE. After that, RGE only needed one more team fight win to smash S04’s base and Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 26:02

Kills: 14-3

Turrets: 8-1

Gold: 51.4k-41.1k

Dragons: 3-0

Barons: 1-0

Game Two

The first game was a stomp for RGE, but S04 clapped back with a dominant win of their own in Game Two. They went all-in on the early game strategy and it went wonderfully for them. Trick was the catalyst for it all, as he helped Odoamne get First Blood on Finn for Odamne before diving bottom to get two more kills. S04 continuous fought RGE in the early game, where they excelled. Because of this, S04 ended up picking up a host of kills and the First Tower bonus.

RGE did show a sliver of hope though. At 17 minutes they won a team fight in the top lane four-for-one and it looked as though their team fighting composition might be online. But it wasn’t the case, and S04 used their inflated gold lead to win a few more fights. Their mid-game lacked decisiveness, but at 30 minutes S04 finally found a fight where they killed four from RGE. This led to an easy Baron secure. Afterward, S04 pushed two lanes, taking the bottom Inhibitor before turning mid. Here, they got a pick and took that Inhibitor too before pushing on and destroying the RGE Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 33:58

Kills: 7-16

Turrets: 2-9

Gold: 53.8k-65.9k

Dragons: 0-5

Barons: 0-1

Game Three

This third match was a lot closer than the previous two. But in the end, S04 took the win. The early game was fairly quiet; Trick helped Odoamne get First Blood onto Finn again while RGE took the First Tower bonus in the bottom lane, but other than that there were only a few picks and tower takes before the 20-minute mark. But once the mid-game hit, it definitely brought more proactivity to the teams. RGE did get a large lead at 22 minutes though because of a two-for-one team fight victory where Draven got a huge Cash-In of 1700 gold.

But it was still very even. An extremely close team fight resulted in a five-for-four in favor of S04, then they found a pick in the middle lane at 34 minutes. This prompted them to go to the Baron, but RGE contested them 4v5 and miraculously killed three. RGE ran down mid and took the Inhibitor, but decided to keep going towards the Nexus. Though they took both Nexus Towers, S04 had a beautiful engage to stop them in their tracks and Ace them. As a result, S04 was free to secure the Baron and Elder Dragon.

These two buffs didn’t accomplish too much and the teams continued to stall the game. All of a sudden a team fight broke out at 42 minutes. Odoamne’s Kennen flew right into the Rogue squad and eviscerated them. He picked up a Pentakill and his team ran down the middle lane and blasted RGE’s second Nexus.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 43:03

Kills: 11-23

Turrets: 8-9

Gold: 71.7k-79.3k

Dragons: 3-2

Barons: 0-1

Game Four

S04 wrapped up the series with a fairly decisive Game Four win. There were two distinct strengths in this game, Inspired and Larssen were very far ahead while S04’s bottom lane was smashing RGE’s. Vander gave over First Blood to Abbedagge when he got picked off in the river at 11 minutes. There were a handful of fights in the early game, with both teams winning and losing some. But in the mid-game, S04 really started pulling ahead in the team fights as Rumble and Lucian came online.

S04 furthered their lead with two Infernal Dragon takes and some more picks. At 32 minutes, a team fight erupted around the Baron. It looked as though S04 would dominate it, but Finn’s Aatrox was massive and salvaged the fight to make it three-for-three. Afterward, RGE even managed to take the Baron. Unfortunately for them, RGE couldn’t really push this advantage and the game stalled out longer. But at 36 minutes, S04 picked off Vander, then won a team fight five-for-one in the top lane. S04 seized this opportunity, using their Teleports to rush the bottom lane. They killed Vander once again before claiming RGE’s third Nexus and a ticket to Athens.

QUICK STATS:

Time: 38:10

Kills: 13-21

Turrets: 6-7

Gold: 68.3k-69.6k

Dragons: 2-3

Barons: 1-0

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